Halloween!

So, I stayed up sewing until 3:30 am on Sunday night. Maxton, really wanted to be Aang, from Avatar: The Last Airbender. I couldn't find any in the stores and for some reason, it didn't occur to me to check online until it was too late. This is cooler, because he's the cartoon Aang, not the live-action movie Aang.

So, of course, I didn't have a pattern, so this is hodge-podged together. The pants I based off a super easy pattern, then I added elastic around the bottom. The cape I sewed in one try, making up my own pattern, and same with the belt.

The collar took me four tries to get right (it's separate from the shirt). I'd never sewn anything like that, and I had to make my own pattern, so that was some serious trial and error. The shirt was a nightmare. The pattern I chose for the shirt was all wrong--the directions did not make any sense (or I was just not getting it, I'm going with the first because it makes me feel better), so I ended up just doing my own thing with it. But, it's done!

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

More Photos from My Over-scheduled Summer

I'm going to have to reassess my evaluation of myself as a person who isn't very busy. This summer has been the most intense of my life. I have never tried to have so much fun in so little time. Note previous posts about Disneyland and Arches, plus all the little things, like a movie every week with my sister, craft day every week, hanging out with friends more, playing baseball for the older two boys, and then there are still four more majorish trips we have planned for this summer. Zion, Yellowstone, another family reunion and climbing Mt. Nebo. I swear, this is turning into a travel blog. Sorry, I swear I'll stop after the summer is over.

In the past few weeks, we went to David's family reunion. His parents and all their eight children, their spouses and then all the grandchildren gather every other summer--the only time we are all in the same spot. It's an event.

Some of my favorite pictures from the week:

Maxton playing the piano at the piano recital.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

A Pretty for My Living Room

The living room of my house was the first I designed in my head. I lost sleep over the thing! I did sketches! I spent hours virtual shopping. I've researched couches and searched and searched for the perfect one. I even posted a mood board of sorts before we even bought our house--you can find it here. I've since changed my mind about the couch. About 30 times.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

In which I Go to Disneyland

I keep thinking about my blog and how much I want to update it. I keep doing 10 projects in steps and rotating them in such a way that I never finish one project. Ever. I have some really cool things to show you. Probably one or two more cycles through my rotation and I'll be exploding with things to show you.

In the meantime, we went on a trip to Disneyland last week or so. It was my kids' first trip. We didn't tell them we were going--which was so fun! We picked up the older two from school and left. It was literally snowing huge snowflakes as we left. In MAY! I was never so glad to leave.

I had a huge bag of activities for the kids to do in the car. Every 30 minutes (I brought a timer), they got something new out of the bag. I'll do a post with a list soon. It worked amazingly well. Almost no whining.

We decided to only go to Las Vegas the first day and stay overnight there (about a six hour drive). We drove with the kids down the strip and let them see all the cool hotels. We saw the volcano going and the fountains in front of the Bellagio. Nice timing.

Then, we woke up and drove the rest of the way to California. We went with my parents and my youngest brother, Ty, and we all rented a house. It was a great vacation--you know, all the regular vacation cliches. Which is why the rest of this post is going to be photos with a tiny bit of commentary.

Maxton waiting to leave the Las Vegas hotel.

 

The kids getting a bit restless now. We did eventually leave.

Griffin lying on the bed of nails at the Discovery Science Center.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

The Griffin Digital Scrapbook Kit Freebie

New to digital scrapbooking? Never downloaded a digital kit before? What in the world are .rar files anyway? Get your answers here: How to Unzip Files So You Can Digi Scrap.

Last week things were just too crazy to get a kit up. I might have finished earlier if I didn't get completely stumped on the journaling. Sometimes I wonder if I should just offer the kit without the layout, because it's what takes me the most time by far, but then, I think that it's easier to see how it might be used if I do a layout, plus, it's makes me do a layout every once in a while. My kids have been looking through their scrapbooks lately and it's a reminder to me of how important this is. Sometimes I get caught up in the creativity of it and the fun of designing it all and I forget why I do this in the first place.

Anyway, I finally got through my mental block and wrote Griffin a letter, which I think turned out beautifully. I seriously cannot believe the type of conversations we have. He asks the most interesting and intelligent questions. Right now as I'm writing, we are having a discussion about what happens if you cut off various parts of your body--sometimes it can get quite gruesome--but he wants to know if you can live if you cut off your head (I explained what the brain does), then he wanted to know if you could live if you cut off your arm, (so I explained that yes, but you could loose a lot of blood if that happened), then he wanted to know how you could cut bones (I told him doctors use saws when they do surgery), then he wanted to know if you could live if your ear was cut off (yes, but it might make it harder to hear). Then he asked, "What about the blood?" so I had to explain about coagulation and how blood clots and major arteries, then he asked if everywhere in your body has bone, so then I explained about cartilage. This is going to be great for my diet. I'm sure I won't want to eat for at least six hours after that conversation. He's either going to be a doctor or an axe murderer.

Anyway, here's the layout:

 

(Click to Download)

Kit Contents: 7 Pattern Papers, 3 Colors of Brads, 1 Overlay, 1 Paper Mask, 3 Thought Bubble Stickers

Enjoy! I'm sure you all will be cursing me for all the grisly talk, but at least you get a freebie out of it.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

The Blob Digital Scrapbooking Kit Freebie

New to digital scrapbooking? Never downloaded a digital kit before? What in the world are .rar files anyway? Get your answers here: How to Unzip Files So You Can Digi Scrap.

Wow, it's been a long time since I put up a kit. I'm had a little spare time this morning, so I finished up this kit.

This layout is all about Griffin right now. He's a hoot right now. He's not what I would call "laid back." He has tons of quirks and challenges, but he's never boring, for sure.

(click thumbnail to download)

Kit contents: 15 Pattern Papers, 3 Journaling Blocks, 3 Labels

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

I Miss Having a Baby

So, yesterday I was comforting Aubriana, holding her and I can't believe how tall and skinny she is. She's in 3T clothes already (she is two and five months) and they aren't large on her either. I'm sort of in disbelief that I'm never going to have a baby again. I mean, I'm glad. I can barely handle the four I have, but at the same time, I'm going to miss having a baby of my own. I compensate by stealing Graham every chance I get.

So, I happened across this two peas post and I had to respond. Here's what I said (a little edited for the blog).

Xander was such a cute baby. He was smart, smart, smart (still is). He would play peek-a-boo with his burp rag and it was adorable. He would do the actions to twinkle-twinkle little star at 6 months--I can just see his chubby hands doing the twinkle part. When we went out to eat, he was so friendly with the waitresses. He watch them coming and going and charm them to death. I miss that. When he started to get hair, it stood straight up in back. It still likes to stick up back there. I loved watching him grow up. I've always been around babies, but it's different to see them day by day learning things. I was always so eager for him to do things and to get to know his personality.

Maxton was the chubbiest thing. He was so good-natured and sweet. I miss the baby kisses from him (he is still the most willing to give me a kiss). I have pictures of him kissing me at 6 months. He has a dimple and it was a killer as a baby. He was such a talker too! I mean, all my kids have been verbal, but with Xander just a little over a year older than him, he picked up on it so quickly. He was saying 25 words or so at age one. He's always been a little rough and tumble guy. He wasn't afraid to tackle Xander. They were so cute playing together.

Griffin was always entertaining us. At 13 months, he would sing e-i-e-i-oooo and crack us all up. My husband would get him up in the mornings and he would toddle to my bed and wake me up and snuggle with me. I miss getting woken up by a baby in the mornings. He was also determined to walk and tried sooner than all my children. I miss seeing him try to walk and working so hard to catch up to his brothers. Now, he's pretty much done it in most areas, but to see his little face and his little body straining to master things--so cute! He would also climb everywhere. I would find him at 9 months in the window sills. It scared me to death. The other thing he would do was open the bottom drawer in the kitchen and climb in and then he would play for a while, then get all upset when he couldn't get out.

My baby, well, she is just about the cutest thing ever now with all this personality, but as a baby she was a quiet, serious thing--always watching us. You could see her wheels turning. She was also very flexible--like seriously flexible and she would fall asleep bent in half, like she had been sitting up and decided to fall asleep with her head between her knees or doing the splits with her head on the floor in front of her. So darling! I miss gluing bows on her head. Now I have to deal with her hair! I loved those bows and she looked so sweet in them, even if she was lacking in hair. She was an early talker too and she always said "thank you." I loved those little sentences. Now, she comes in to me, and this is a direct quote, and says things like, "Help me put my socks on. It's really hard."

Writing that all out and reading everyone else responses has put me in a nostalgic mood. Ack! Where is Graham? I need a Graham fix.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Fun with Atoms Digital Scrapbooking Kit Freebie

New to digital scrapbooking? Never downloaded a digital kit before? What in the world are .rar files anyway? Get your answers here: How to Unzip Files So You Can Digi Scrap.

This kit is inspired by my Science Foundations class. We are learning about radiation this week and carbon dating, so a little retro 50s space age science kit was in order, I think. It might be fun to do a kit based on each class, but I'm not making any promises at this point.

Here's the layout I did with this kit. My boys are so grown up! I went looking for a picture of the three of them together and when I opened that one, taken six days after Griffin was born, I literally started crying. They are just so big now! I'm so proud of them; they are each amazing.

(Click thumbnail to download)

Kit Contents: 18 Pattern Papers, 1 Journaling Block, 1 Ribbon, 1 Ribbon and Staples Combo

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Fall Breeze Digital Scrapbook Kit Freebie

New to digital scrapbooking? Never downloaded a digital kit before? What in the world are .rar files anyway? Get your answers here: How to Unzip Files So You Can Digi Scrap.

I took some time out of my studies this week to make a new kit. I wish I could keep up the pace of doing one a week, but that's probably not going to happen, so I'm aiming for one or two a month. We are supposed to have nasty weather tomorrow, so it feels appropriate to put up a fall kit.

I don't know what happened last year, but I don't have any fall photos, so this layout is of photos from two years ago. My boys have grown so much! They look so tiny in these photos.

(Click thumbnail to download)

Contents: 5 pattern papers, two styles of journaling blocks, 3 labels, 1 word art ("fall"), 1 background paper mask

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Project Progress: Tying Up Loose Ends, Week 2

Sorry I'm posting this so late on Friday. I've been not feeling too great the past few days--migraines and cramps and feeling so tired and run-down. I spent most of the day today in bed, trying to nap. It's not easy to parent and nap at the same time. Sometimes I'm more successful than others. Yelling from bed isn't the best discipline technique.

Anyway, I dragged myself out of bed this afternoon and took these pictures. Quilt is done! Plus, I sewed two skirts for Aubrey this week. Super productive and my list is getting shorter! I start school Sept 10, so we will see what I can get done this next week. Xander starts school on Thursday (Maxton starts a week later), so I will have a little overlap where they will be gone and I haven't started yet.
The back of the quilt with my "creative" piecing to make it the right size:
A close up of the quilting. I really have got to start planning these things better. This was a very time consuming way to do it.
A skirt I sewed up after I couldn't stand quilting for one more second:
Plus, a bubble skirt:
It's a bit big, but I love it! Aubrey loves it too, especially the butterflies.

I'm thinking of selling the pattern on etsy, but we'll see if I can get it together enough.

Anyway, I can't wait to see what I finish next week.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Fruits of the Crop

A Maxton and Griffin hug! Everyone say "awwwww!" I'm liking this layout, because I've had the paper forever and I'm so glad to use some of it. Maxton is getting close to 6 years old and I bought this paper to use on a layout of him when he was one.

I handcut the leave motif. I've got something really cool in mind using that technique and digital scrapbooking if I can get around to it. I love hand cutting because it's fast and gives an organic feel to your layout. Here I crumpled it and distressed it a bit after cutting.

Another great tip is to use tags as blocks of pattern paper. Here I stamped mine and I think it adds another layer of dimension. Paper is Making Memories and Chatterbox, Sticker is Heidi Swapp, Stamp is Cactus Pink (one of my most favorite stamps, EVER), Letter Stickers and Pen are American Crafts.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Project Progress: Tying Up Loose Ends, Week 1

I decided to make my project progress finishing a bunch of projects I have around that are only half done that I abandoned for various reasons. You know, loss of interest, missing a something I need to buy, things I just got tired of doing, etc.

I would love it if you want to join me in this next month in getting all those half-finished projects done!

First up, is this quilt top:
I started piecing it last winter. It's all done from leftover scraps from other quilts we've done over years. I stopped because I couldn't find a border I liked to finish it. Griffin said he wanted it and I had no objection, except I was thinking of some sort of rainbow print as the border and I couldn't find one that wasn't girly or had the right colors.

Griffin hanging out with his future quilt:On Tuesday I set off to find something that would work. I first headed to American Quilts, which is a little quilting shop not far from our house. Although I would gladly take a yard or two of every fabric in there--they didn't have anything that would work. I managed to walk out of there without buying anything. I feat of strength that proves I'm super-human because they carry Amy Butler fabric.

I headed off to the much less trendy Hancock Fabrics and settled on these. The blue is the binding, the white a border, the green a wide border and the stars the backing.

I got the quilt top finished:


I was about a yard short in the backing fabric. That's what happens when you try to guess yardage for a backing. I should have sat down and figured exact measurements, but yeah, didn't take the time. I made it work (Project Runway starts soon!!) and pieced the back together. It ended up looking quite neat.

Then I enlisted my mom to make the quilt sandwich. I started quilting, but the machine started protesting and getting a cough. I stopped and conceded it needed the doctor's. My mom dropped it off and we should have it back on tomorrow. I'm disappointed because I got it about half way quilting and I really wanted to finish it for today. Hopefully next week.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

The Amazing Patterned Frogs Digital Scrapbooking Kit Freebie

New to digital scrapbooking? Never downloaded a digital kit before? What in the world are .rar files anyway? Get your answers here: How to Unzip Files So You Can Digi Scrap.

I promised a boy kit and this is it. I still want to do something with flames or something, but I'm also kinda in love with these froggies. The boys love them too, which is always a good sign. This is the boy part of a girl/boy kit that use the same greens. Next week I'll share the girl part.

Here are my froggies. I hope you enjoy them. I've seen a few projects with my butterfly kit and it's a kind of surreal experience. Like, did I really create that? Very cool feeling.

(Click Thumbnail to Download)

Kit contents: One bracket set, one title block, one set of frog stickers and 8 full-size pattern papers.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Fruits of the Crop

This week, I have two favorite layouts. The first is of Aubriana on her first birthday. This one is fun I think because I got to try alcohol inks for the first time. I love the saturated colors of this one and the funk and fun that comes from everything being a little off kilter.

This 2nd one is of Aubriana and Griffin. Gosh, they are just so little! Aubrey's eyes are really more grey, but they look so blue in these pictures. The flowers are Cricut, from the Walk in My Garden cartridge. The butterflies are Cuttlebug. This was actually an ansignment for creativexpress.com. Sorry about the "baby" hanging off the end. It got scanned all wonky. I think I fixed it after scanning. I've since purchased some much better adhesive (I have an ATG gun--that thing is permentent!)

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Monsters under the Bed Digital Scrapbooking Freebie

New to digital scrapbooking? Never downloaded a digital kit before? What in the world are .rar files anyway? Get your answers here: How to Unzip Files So You Can Digi Scrap.


This week's kit is all about the monsters. Monsters are very popular in our house right now. Aubrey especially loves to pretend to be a monster and stomp around, being mighty and fierce. This past weekend, we saw Monsters vs. Aliens and she has been talking about it constantly. Xander asks me every five minutes if we can get it on video DVD (what century am I living in, anyway?), despite me promising him that we would buy it before we even saw it in the theater. Griffin is denying any possibility that he might have slept through half of the movie, even though I personally saw him slumped over.

Anyway, that's the inspiration behind this kit. I hope you like it!

(Click on thumbnail to download)

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Three Down, One to Go

I love being a parent. I particularly love those peaceful moments when everything seems right in the world. The world is full of hope. The end is in sight and you bask in the glory of each tick of the clock, so filled with joy that you may burst. I am of course talking about the moment when you realize your child is potty trained. I’m calling it. Griffin is potty trained. To give you a moment of perspective, I have only one in diapers. ONE. The last time this happened was 5.5 years ago, before Maxton was born. I’ve had three in diapers. Twice.

When we had our children insanely close together, I knew that diaper changing was going to be a huge part of it, but I looked at it as an advantage. My reasoning went like this: if you space your children approximately 3.5 years apart (so far, the approximate age of potty training for my children), and you have four children, you will have changed diapers for 14 years. That is a lot of years. Doing it my way, you will have to change the same amount of diapers, but it is condensed to 7.5 years. That is a difference of 6.5 YEARS. Yes, I know my math skills astound. I took calculus.

Baby, I only have 1.5 years left! Maybe sooner!

Griffin is strutting around the house, hugely proud and stuffed with candy. I bribed him. Bribing is one of my main parenting tools. We got a huge fishbowl, filled it with Dots and Tootsie Rolls and he got a treat for every successful bathroom trip. When all the candy is gone, he is getting a fish. We’ve never had a pet, so this is big time stuff. I've been generously helping him along by donating my teeth and daily calorie allotment to eating tootsie rolls. Especially the vanilla flavor-rolls. It's my duty as a mother.

In other Griffin news, we recently had our first “where do babies come from” talk. His aunt is pregnant and due soon, so it’s been on his mind. I explained briefly.

His next question?

“Mommy, what happens if somebody eats your brains?”

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

The power of positive thinking.

A few days ago, I was working on my computer while my kids watched Super Why on PBS. The main character, incidentally and cleverly named Wyatt, was helping a little pig who couldn’t build train tracks. A certain phrase that a certain three-year-old uses emphatically on occasion caught my attention.

They go on to help a prince win his father’s kingdom by helping him first find and then fly a magic carpet by the power of positive thinking. I love shows that teach something, but I think they missed the mark with Griffin. The little pig learns a lesson about positive thinking from the magic carpet prince and is able to build his train tracks at the end, but Griffin conveniently ignores this positive change of heart.

So, what is this phrase that shows up in our lives from time to time? “I’ll never be able to do this. Never. Never. Never.” Way to ignore the message of the piece and instead pick up a frustrating, although passionate catch-phrase.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

A few funnies. . .

I love this one from Griffin. I was helping him get dressed the other morning in a polo shirt. He wiggles into it, then indicating the buttons, he said, "Can you do the finishing touch?" I laughed a little and then he told me, "The finishing touch means the buttons." Yeah, I caught that one. I was laughing so hard I almost couldn't do the button.

Also, the other day, Maxton asked me, "Does Santa exist?" What kind of almost 5-year-old phrases it that way? I think through my series of wily questions, his doubts were put to rest. I also told him that Santa won't come if he doesn't believe. That pretty much sewed up his belief for now.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Photos from Griffin's PAR-TAY!

We had Griffin's party last Saturday, but I'm just now getting around to uploading photos. It was pretty fun. Here he is opening a Power Ranger's movie:Now for his cake antitics. Sometimes I wish I could see inside that boy's head. I have not a clue what he was thinking.

Covering the eyes:
Sticking his tongue in his cheek:
Trying to blow out the candles:
Daddy finally steps in a pretends to help and we finally get them blown out:
The party people. Miles and Aubriana were sleeping. Or maybe Miles was up, but not in the picture (Hyrum, Maddy, Griffin, Xander and Maxton):
For his birthday, he got two Power Ranger movies, two Power Rangers action figures, a Cars puzzle, Legos, and the Leapfrog fridge letter magnets.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

We are go for Griffin's party tomorrow!

I had such a hard time deciding what kind of cake to make Griffin for his birthday. The only thing he was saying was Power Rangers. After just doing the TMNT cake for Xander, I wasn't in the mood. Plus, he's only turning three, so I wanted to do something less middle-sized boy and something more little boy. I'm sure I'm going to do roomfuls of Power Rangers, Batman, Spiderman, and other various and assorted super heroes in the next few years and I wanted to do something fun for me. Selfish mommy. Anyway, I asked him what his favorite animal was and he said puppy, so I give you Bingo, The Cake. He took me about 10 hours to do, but since Griffin's party isn't until tomorrow, I'm feeling relaxed and happy he's done.

I had a lot of fun making him, not any stress at all, except the stress of keeping Griffin from stealing frosting, marshmallows and fondant, all of which disappeared into his hollow gut and from there into his bloodstream. Luckily, the damage was minimal: I had to write his greeting in fondant instead of frosting since it fell victim to his sneaky fingers, but the rest I was able to retrieve in time to save most of it. He also asked me about 100 times if he could have the leftover fondant yet (I always let them play with the leftovers). Yeah, that got old. I don't know how he has the patience and good humor to say it the 100th with the same energy and hopeful enthusiasm that he used the firs timet. Sometime that skill will come in handy for something other than driving his over-achieving mother nutso.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.